Muskegon 06/11/05

[~Z~]

Well, here's a few for ya in from Muskegon. Headed out of Grand Rapids around 8:45am on 6/11 and was heading to my parents house to help them with their moving sale. While driving into Muskegon on Bus 31, passed under the rail bridge, thinking to myself, "geezz..there's never any movement on saturdays here." 10 seconds later, I spy D727 heading north along Seaway just passing Getty St. I head on down Seaway, getting off at Merriam St. Went down a few blocks, bailed out and went down the enbankment. Didn't notice the bushes in front of me, but well, cropped it like so:

[~Z~]

Train rolls by, CSXT 9170 and Chessie Caboose 904015 bring up the rear. He's watchin the greenery of Muskegon Heights roll by

[~Z~]

After the train cleared, headed through town, down to Heritage Landing. Very thankful for the 10 mph limit through town for the train, let me easily get ahead of D727. Probably could have even stopped near Laketon to get another photo series.
Here it is heading past Heritage Landing.

[~Z~]

Quickly headed down near Western Ave, and still got here with plenty of time too. I'm sure Mr Tops has this figured out better than I. As soon as that caboose came into view, snapped a bunch of pics as it rounded the corner. With this, I then headed to my parents moving sale, just a little bit late.

[RailCanon]

Thanks for the report. I like the third and fourth shots the best.

[samdan]

Hello Railroadfan,

I'm new at this, but here's a reply. I grew up in Muskegon in the early 60's, and have fond memories of all the rail action there. At one point, we lived between the Penn Central, Grand Trunk Laketon Ave switching branch, and C&O tracks in E. Muskegon. There was ALWAYS something going on. Even the GTW carferries were in operation, loading and unloading railcars. I also remember the nightly Cannonball, which our family only knew as the "9:20," which we simply named for the time it showed up thru Muskegon Heights. A kid couldn't help but love trains back then. Maybe that's why I work for the RR (BNSF) now.

SamDan

[~Z~]

Hello Railroadfan,

I'm new at this, but here's a reply. I grew up in Muskegon in the early 60's, and have fond memories of all the rail action there. At one point, we lived between the Penn Central, Grand Trunk Laketon Ave switching branch, and C&O tracks in E. Muskegon. There was ALWAYS something going on. Even the GTW carferries were in operation, loading and unloading railcars. I also remember the nightly Cannonball, which our family only knew as the "9:20," which we simply named for the time it showed up thru Muskegon Heights. A kid couldn't help but love trains back then. Maybe that's why I work for the RR (BNSF) now.

SamDan

do you know about how often the car ferries ran? i moved to muskegon in the early 90's, and was out in 1999. thanks!

[samdan]

Hi Railroadfan,

I can't recall the exact schedule. From what I can recall, I'd say they probably ran almost daily, or at least a couple times a week in the early seventies. I just remember that every time I went down there, they always seemed to be switching cars onto the ship.

When I was a young teenager ('73-76), I used to go fishing there with my buddies on the shore of Muskegon Lake just to the east of the ferries. The City of Milwaukee was running then, and the Madison was docked there as well, just don't recall if it ran or not.

An earlier memory I have is seeing two ships stuck in the ice about a mile off the Muskegon Breakwater Light in Lake Michigan. I will guess that this was somewhere around January of '67 or 68, possibly as late as '70. One was one of the Grand Trunk ferries, and the other was the Highway 16, I believe. They were there at least a couple days. Hope this info helps you to relive some of the glory days of Muskegon's rail and marine past. It really was an amazing place to be.